No Man's Sky Wiki:Manual of Style
This Manual of Style is based off of WoWWiki's Manual of Style, but is adapted and modified to meet the requirements of this Wiki. This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this Wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles. These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for this Wiki, but a more expansive set of style guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style. General One of the most important parts of Wiki editing is how to structure an article. The structure is a powerful thing: it dictates what information the reader reads, and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where it goes, and how it might be written. Structure has the power to inform, or confuse, the same way good or bad writing does. Keep a well-structured article, and you are more likely to have a high quality one. Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Keep it logical, but feel free to forsake strict logic for readability. Wherever possible, try to have an introduction for each section. Just like the article as a whole, the section should start with an introduction, and then have its subsections below it. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Too many nested sections may lead to a confusing, or unreadable article. Above all, keep your layout consistent. Don't throw your reader a curve ball too often. The following sections will offer some good advice on keeping your articles clean, consistent, and clear. Player vs. Character vs. Contributor There should be a distinction between the Player, the Character, and a Contributor of this Wiki. This portion of the ‘’’Manual of Style’’’ will need to be updated as the game is explored, and more information is made available about who the main character is within the game. The ‘’’Player’’’ is the human that is playing ‘’’No Man’s Sky’’’ on the PC, or PS4. The ‘’’Character’’’ is the main character that is portrayed in first-person within the game. There are alien species that are in the game, but they should not be considered the ‘’’Character’’’, but should be referred to as an ‘’’Alien Species’’’, or ‘’’NPC’’’. The ‘’’Contributor’’’ is a member of the Wiki community that is able to make edits. When using these terms within the same article, please be aware of the subject of the sentence, so there will be no confusion. Introduction Unless an article is very short, it should start with an introduction before the heading. The introduction should not be titled Introduction or any equivalent header. The table of contents, if displayed, appears after the introduction and before the first heading. The introduction should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, and explaining why the subject is interesting, or notable. It should be between one or two paragraphs long, and should be written in a style that causes the reader to be encouraged to read the rest of the article. In most cases, and for SEO improvement, make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. For example, write "Balari V is a very cold, snow covered planet that was featured in the gameplay trailer at E3 2015." The first time the article mentions the title, put it in bold using three apostrophes — article title produces article title. Avoid other uses of bold in the first sentence, except for alternative titles of an article; for example: Plutonium, abbreviated as Pu, is an element in the No Man’s Sky periodic chart of elements. The titles of all short stories, games, game series, motion comics, and Internet videos should be in italics, for example: No Man’s Sky is the second game from video game developer company, Hello Games. Do not put links in the bold reiteration of the title in the article's lead sentence. For example, "Grafningard is a solar system that was shown in a gameplay demo." Versus "Grafningard is a solar system that was shown in a gameplay demo." Table of contents A table of contents will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings/subheadings combination (unless forced by the below options). By default this will be left-aligned above the first section heading. * To force a TOC position (left-aligned): __TOC__ * To completely remove the TOC from a page: The table of contents can be right-aligned - but only if it is very long (over 15 entries) and an information box is not occupying the top-right corner of the article (rare exceptions exist). * Right-aligned TOC that floats next to text: Section headings Use the (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to . Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Founding and history", not "Founding and History". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere. Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep headings short, avoid unnecessary words, or redundancy in headings (i.e. avoid a, an, and the pronouns, repeating the article title, and so on). Also, try to avoid giving identical titles to different sections. Images Images make an article memorable and pretty. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When you are choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up. Large images such as screenshots should use the "thumb" (example: ) option which displays large images as thumbnails. Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an Infobox is not being used in an article, a right aligned picture in the lead section is encouraged. Galleries When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, and because multiple images unevenly spaced throughout the article can detract from the readability of an article, it is encouraged that the contributor use the section. Image:Sugas-Uomi_07a.png|Caption Image:Sugas-Uomi_20a.png|Caption Tables Tables should use a "class" design when possible, and should include as little 'fancy' formatting as possible. Tables can also be made sortable by adding a "sortable" class. For long tables, it is recommended to create an "alt" class to alternate row colours to enhance readability. The below examples use "toccolours" as a class, but this is only for the purposes of demonstration, and isn't generally recommended. With row headings, table caption, sortable | |} Without row headings, with alt rows | |} See also, references, external links, and navigational tables The last sections, if they exist, should always be "See also", followed by "References", followed by "External links". In the case of "See also", use bullets to list the internal links. Under the references section should be placed . Finally, in the external links should be all external links. Categories Categories should be added to the end of an article - a full list can be found on . They take the form Category:Categoryname. All articles should be accessible starting from Category:Browse, via subcategories. Quotations Format a long quote (over four lines) as an italicized block quotation, which will be indented from both margins. Do not enclose the block quote in quotation marks. To format a block quotation, do not use the Wiki indentation mark ":" — instead, use the HTML element. Grammar Grammar is a writer's toolbox. You can't build good sentences without knowing how to use your tools. Since a Wiki article must be as clear as possible for all persons reading it, contributors must strive for correct grammar standards to ensure clear communication. Titles of works As stated in the Introduction section, italics are used for the titles of works, such as books and games. The titles of articles, chapters, and other short works are not italicized but are enclosed in double quotation marks. Writing : “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” -- Stephen King We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you're editing Wikis, you are both academic and artist. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you have to skillfully balance both. Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose. Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper, or a newspaper article. Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you do not need to give a detailed history of alien species on the page about Korvax. Consider the article's title as your only topic and write from that perspective. Make use of the Wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information. Write from an impersonal perspective.' Do not use "I." Avoid drawing attention to the contributor (yourself) as much as possible. Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt is not golden, you can fix it later, or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Do not be afraid to make a mistake. Conclusion Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article structure. It's ultimately your job as a contributor to flesh out each article you add, or edit. See also * External links * Wikipedia's Manual of Style